How A Prison Break Changed Everything - My Publishing Journey Part 2

If you haven't read part 1 yet, click HERE to start from the beginning.  

I hear a lot of authors talk about how they've wanted to be a writer all their lives. With how much I struggled with spelling, I never thought that was even an option for me. While I got high marks on my creative writing papers in high school for the story, I'd always get marked down for grammar and spelling. Because of that, I was reluctant to write any type of story and publish it for the world to see.

 

So what changed?

 

In 2005 my husband and I began watching a television show called Prison Break.It had everything we liked in a show. There was action with lots of twists and turns and for me there was the budding romance between the main character, Michael, and the prison doctor, Sara.

 

Everything was going great until at the end of the second season the writers went on strike. Fans of the show, including me and my husband, were eager to get back to the story. The problem was, by the time it was announced that the writers strike was over and people were getting back to work, something happened...

 

The actress that played Sara got pregnant.

 

For most shows this wouldn't be a big deal. Shows work around pregnancies all the time. Sometimes they hide it with props and camera angles. Other times they work the pregnancy into the story line of the show.

 

Neither happened in this case. Instead, the show writers decided to kill off her character.

 

Fans of the romance between Michael and Sara were upset and fan fiction featuring the couple started popping up on fan sites all over the internet. After everything these two had been through, they deserved their happily ever after.

 

I read several of these fan fiction stories, but none of them felt exactly right to me. So after some encouragement from some online friends, I took the plunge and wrote my very first fan fiction story, Moving Forward.

 

Click Here to read part 3 of Sherri's publishing journey.

 

You're Never Going To Pass The Second Grade - My Publishing Journey Part 1

After ten years, I've learned that my publishing journey is anything but typical. I never set out to become a published author. Who knew that ten years later I would have thirteen published novels, a novella, and three novelettes under my belt.

 

In a way, my publishing journey started way back in the second grade. I was seven years old and only two weeks into the school year. While overall I was a good student, there was one subject where I had trouble...spelling.

 

I couldn't spell to save my life. Really. I'm not exaggerating. Even simple words like 'how' and 'who' would cause me pause. Phonics didn't make sense to me and in many ways it was as if I were learning a foreign language. I could speak the words fine, and I was even reading above my grade level. But for some reason, when it came to spelling the words, my brain went on the fritz. 

 

Because of this, my new teacher called my parent in for a conference. She sat them down and told them that my spelling was so bad she didn't know if I would pass the second grade. My parent's were rightly concerned and began trying to find a way to help me get better at spelling.

 

I ran into that teacher a few years ago and shared that I was now a published author. Her astonishment was clear on her face. Never did she imagine that the little girl who couldn't spell the simplest of words would go on to write books for a living.

 

Continue reading part 2.

Inspiration For My Military Romance Longing For His Kiss

One of the most common questions I get asked as an author is 'how do you come up with your stories?' The simple answer is that I just do, but that's not usually the type of answer people want to hear. Often the question is asked by individuals who are more analytical, those to whom creativity doesn't come naturally. It's difficult for them to wrap their head around crafting a story, or making a sculpture out of a block of stone, or building a piece of furniture without blueprints.

 

Many creative people construct in their heads. This is the case with more traditional art forms like painting and sculpting, as well as, writing.

 

Even authors who write with an outline have to create the world, the story, they are going to build it in their head first. They may write it down to help flush out the details and fill in any holes, but the creativity...the imagination...forms in their head before it ever makes it onto paper...or the computer.

 

For someone who is a true pantser when it comes to writing, I'm much like a painter who sits in front of a canvas and lets inspiration take over. When I was writing my Finding Anna series, I had no idea how the fourth book would end until I was 75% of the way through the book.

 

For the fourth story in my Serpent's Kiss series, Longing for His Kiss, the inspiration came from a song. I was driving to a book conference, listening to the radio and a song by Tim McGraw came on called If You're Reading This. By the time it was over, I had tears streaming down my face and the idea for a new story.

 

The story is about loss, grief, and finding love again after losing the love of your life. Grace, the heroine of the story, is a submissive who finds herself lost without her husband and master after he's killed over seas while serving his country in the military. She's trying to find her way again along when she receives a letter. It's from her husband, his last wish for her if he should not return...he wants her to move on with her life and find another Dom.

 

I cried many tears while writing Long for His Kiss. It's a moving story that tugs at the heart strings and will have you reaching for a box of tissues.

 

Huge Paperback Sale!

 

It's a new year and I've decided to do a little early spring cleaning. Since there weren't any book conferences last year, it's left me with quite a bit of paperbacks in my inventory and they're just sitting around collecting dust. So I've decided to do something about it and what better way to start off a new year than with a sale.

▪	Quantities are limited to what I have in stock. Once they're gone, they're gone.

▪	Prices include media mail shipping in the continental US only. If you're in Alaska, Hawaii, or outside of the US, you can still take part in the sale, however, the additional shipping cost will be added to your invoice.

▪	All books will be signed, however, if you want it personalized, you need to indicate that on the form.

Click HERE to order the paperbacks you want to add to your collection.

What I'm Currently Reading #FridayReads

Next on my TBR list is a book I've been wanting to read for the last ten years. I was bummed when Stephenie Meyer decided not to publish Midnight Sun all those years ago after someone leaked her draft to the public, but as an author I understood. The betrayal she must have felt had to be tremendous. 

 

My joy over this book finally being published is not only because I can't wait to read Twilight from Edward's point of view, but also because Twilight is what ultimately led me to publishing my first novel. After reading the Twilight series, I, like other fans, wanted more, so I began writing Twilight fan fiction. And it was that Twilight fan fiction that got me noticed by a small publisher. Without that, who knows if I'd have ever become a published author.

 

Have you read Midnight Sun and if not, do you plan to read it?

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